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Hi I'm Diana

I'm a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

About Me

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At the age of 7 I nearly committed suicide. It was Joseph Smith's Testimony that stopped me from carrying through with it. Please read the part titled: "Why I am a Mormon" to find out how Joseph Smith reached out to me through his testimony and dissuaded me from taking my life.
Today, as a result of my decision to live, I am very blessed to be eternally married that wonderful man whom I wondered about at the age of 7. I am the Mother of 12 children, Mother-in-Law to 2 Daughters-in-Law and one Son-in-Law, 2 Granddaughters and 1 Grandson. How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father for helping me to live so that I could have so many incredible blessings!
As a result of my decision to live also, I am today, a lover of good literature and music and am a writer of such (or at least I try to be).
Among other things, I love to read and write poetry.
I love people, and hope through my writings and otherwise, to be an influence for good in the lives of those whom I meet and come in contact with.
My poetry website is at: http://www.poetrypoem.com/heavenspirations
I pray your life will be greatly enriched and blessed by my testimony and my writings.
With Love Forever, Diana

Why I am a Mormon

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Out of the Mouth of Babes...
Psalms 8:1-2 states:
1 O LORD Our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
And Luke 10:21 states:
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.
From my earliest memories, my parents read to my siblings and I from the King James version of the Holy Bible. They also read to us from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I cannot adequately express the love and pure testimony from the Holy Ghost that filled my tiny little heart, for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as His word was written upon my heart. I knew without the slightest doubt that He came to this earth, ministered to and loved not only the Jews -- but all mankind as well. I knew and had great joy in the fact that He loves the little children. I knew that He loved me PERSONALLY because I personally felt, and had great joy in His love for me.
I knew as well, via that same joyous and powerful witness of the Holy Ghost, that God the Father and Jesus Christ truly came to the young boy Joseph Smith, who was in his 14th year as he prayed and asked God to help him to know which Church he should join.
As a result of such pure, given knowledge, and my love for the Savior, I stood up in church at the age of 5 years old and testified of my love for Jesus Christ, the Prophet Joseph Smith and my family. I am not one who likes being the center of attention, so I was terrified of standing up in front of the congregation to bear my testimony. Yet because I loved my Lord and Savior His chosen prophets and my family -- I wanted to testify of it. In other words: Had the Holy Spirit not filled my heart with such glorious knowledge I would never have made such an effort to ignore my fears, force myself to stand in front of the congregation and say that I knew these things to be true.
Had I not been given such a testimony -- Had I not known that He truly lives and loves me -- it is highly improbable that I would be alive today.
At the age of seven I was very upset with a sibling who I felt was treating me very meanly. I had attempted to get help from my parents but felt that they were doing nothing to stop my sibling from tormenting me. I knew at that age how to make a noose so I did. I then went into a bedroom that wasn't being used as a bedroom at that time but had a table by the wall. There was a hook in the ceiling which I tied the rope to. I then stuck my head through the noose and prepared to jump. As I did so, I wondered if my attempt would be successful or just injure me. I had been taught that little children were not accountable before the age of 8, so I thought: "If I do this I will not be held accountable for it because I'm not 8 yet."
My next thoughts though, surely were given me of the Lord, and are what stopped me from carrying through with it. I thought: "Well, Joseph Smith was in his 14th year and I am in my 8th year. What if I WILL be held accountable for doing this? I also thought about the fact that if I died, the man that I was eventually supposed to meet and marry and be with for eternity, would never know that I existed and would marry someone else.
I have since come to realize that because I had been given so great an understanding of these things that I WOULD have been held accountable for making such a terrible choice. For we are judged of the Lord by what we do with the knowledge that He gives to us.
Had I not been given such a testimony I also would undoubtedly have left the Church in my youth because of the poor treatment I received from my peers who were also members of the Church. While I loved hearing the lessons in Sunday School, many of my peers were so noisy that I'd get upset and try to shush them many times so that I could hear the lesson. We were taught that we were children of our loving Heavenly Father. We were taught songs such as "I Am A Child of God", "I Want to Be Kind to Everyone", "Jesus Said Love Everyone," etc. Yet at school and in the community I was ignored, made fun of, and essentially forced to walk and play alone by all too many of those same peers that sat with me in Sunday School.
This was so confusing to me because I thought that they knew better than to treat me that way because they were taught the same things that I was. I fully believed that they knew better. To me, being taught better equated to knowing better. I had no idea at that time, that there were actually baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who did not yet have testimonies of their own. Children of our loving Heavenly Father who had not yet taken to heart and/or received their own personal witness of the Divine reality of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I thought being a member of the Church equated to having a testimony like I did. As a result of this belief, I felt upset and intolerant toward them for their bad behaviors. In my teens, my family moved to another state where within a years time I came to a crossroads in my life. I planned to become a model or an actress. My thoughts regarding this were as follows: "I know who I am". "I know that I am a beloved daughter of our Heavenly Father and that He loves me". I couldn't understand why those who had treated me poorly couldn't see that. And I somehow felt that I had to prove to them that I was somebody. It was at that point that the Lord opened my understanding and the sudden realization came to me that I didn't need to please anyone but the Lord and myself. And if I couldn't please the Lord, there was no way I was ever going to please myself. It was at that point that I also realized that I had been judging those who had excluded me. I realized that by thinking that they knew better because they had been taught better -- left no room for the possibility that they didn't KNOW better. The truth was that I had no idea where they were in their personal walk with God. And I had no clue as to whether or not they even had their own testimonies. It became perfectly clear to me that this is why the Lord tells us in James 5:9: Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: Behold, the Judge standeth before the door. It is He, not I who knows all hearts explicitly. Yet He loves us all implicitly.
I testify to you dear Sister, Brother, Friend -- that Jesus Christ is real! That His Church was taken from the earth for a time see Amos 8:11-13 but has been restored see Acts 3:21 through the prophet Joseph Smith see Isaiah 54 esp. verses 16-17 to the earth. I attest to you that He truly knows your name. That His love for you personally is beyond any earthly comprehension regardless of your race, color or religion. He knows where you are at and what you are doing. And in spite of it all, whether you are in the best of places or the worst of places in your life He knows and dearly loves you! He has joy with and over you see 3 Nephi 17:18-22 of the Book of Mormon and weeps with and for you see Moses 7: 28-33 of the Pearl of Great Price. For as it says in Moses 1:39:
39 For behold, this is my work and my glory -- to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
I bear you this, my personal witness in the sacred and Holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

How I live my faith

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I am constantly trying to find ways to improve.
I still find myself struggling to be tolerant of those who I perceive to be my enemies -- especially in the political arena. The Lord, in Matthew 17:21 KJV told his Apostles when they couldn't cast devils out of a man: "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting".
That is how I live my faith -- by prayer and fasting. Asking the Lord continuously to cast Satan out of my life, remove any and all myths from my heart and fill me with His everlasting truths.
And I try hard to love and serve my fellow beings, who are truly my brothers and sisters, instead of drawing judgements and conclusions about them.

Why is family so important to Mormons?

Diana

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Because God is all about family. He is our Heavenly Father, we are His children, He loves us and wants us and our families to be together with Him forever! Show moreShow less

What is the priesthood?

Diana

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It is the power to administer God's ordinances on the earth. It is the power by which this earth was created. It is the authority held by and given to man through Jesus Christ. Show moreShow less

Following the birth of his newborn daughter, Kevin Livingstone decided he needed to make meaningful changes in his life that would allow him to draw closer to God and help him be a better husband and father.